Hundreds of chickens flew into the Elmira Corning Regional Airport but their wings aren't tired.

The chickens — all egg-laying hens — were flown in from California on a charter jet as part of a rescue operation involving the Farm Sanctuary, outside of Watkins Glen.

The hens were among 3,000 that were rescued from a California egg farm, where they were scheduled to be killed.

More than 1,100 of the birds were flown to New York, where they were then transported to Farm Sanctuary, which will keep some of the hens, while others will be picked up by other sanctuaries.

"In industrial farming there are places called battery farms, and they have basically cages that house about six to eight birds in a cage for one to two years," said Susie Coston, Farm Sanctuary shelter manager. "Their entire lives, they were used for making eggs. After about two years, their production drops, so they are sent to slaughter.

"This animal place in California made a deal with the egg farm to allow this group of girls to leave," Coston said. "An anonymous donor funded a flight to get them here because a four-day (over-the-road) trip was way too long for these birds that have already gone through so much."

This is the first time a private plane has been chartered to fly hens from coast to coast, Coston said.

Other sanctuaries in Ohio, Michigan, Vermont, Maryland and New York will take many of the hens.

Thursday was triage day to determine the health of each bird. Volunteer Debra Roppolo traveled from Toronto to take part.

"I love this place. I love what they do," Roppolo said. "It's completely worth the ... drive. It's just an incredible experience to rescue 1,000 chickens."